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Mealey's Employment

January 27, 2025
Pa. Top Court Permits Torts For Time-Barred Occupational Disease Claimants

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The bargain between employees and employers in the occupational disease system cannot countenance completely extinguishing an asbestos claim that would be time-barred by the law, a divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in affirming lower courts while relying on the same logic it applied in the workers’ compensation system setting a decade ago.
January 27, 2025
No Error In Excluding Experts, Dismissing Claim In Suit Against Driver, Employer

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said a district court did not abuse its discretion in barring experts from testifying on the timing of inclement weather that a tractor-trailer driver encountered before a crash or in excluding expert testimony on whether the driver was acting within the standard of care.
January 27, 2025
1st Circuit Revives Religious Discrimination Claims Over COVID-19 Vaccine Firing

BOSTON — A woman who was terminated from her job at a global biopharmaceuticals company for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine stating that it went against her “personal, private and sincerely held religious beliefs” may still have grounds to sue her employer for religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the corresponding Massachusetts state law after a panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partially reversed the lower court’s dismissal of her claims.
January 27, 2025
NLRB Appeals Constitutional Ruling On NLRB Judges’ Multiple Tenure Protections

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Labor Relations Board, the general counsel, three NLRB members and an administrative law judge (ALJ) filed a notice of appeal after a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled that NLRB ALJs are “‘officers of the United States’” and must not be protected from presidential removal via multiple levels of protection.
January 24, 2025
U.S. High Court Will Consider Limited Question In Class Case Over Veterans’ Pay

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a veterans’ petition for a writ of certiorari in a class case over retired pay and agreed to hear a limited question concerning whether the Barring Act’s “default procedures and limitations” is displaced by a “settlement mechanism” in 10 U.S. Code Section 1413a.
January 23, 2025
1st Circuit Panel Upholds Firing For COVID-19 Refusal, But On Different Grounds

BOSTON — While disagreeing with a Massachusetts federal court as to the basis for its decision, a panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a communications company in a former employee’s lawsuit alleging both disability and religious discrimination in terminating him for his refusal to become vaccinated against COVID-19.
January 22, 2025
‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Settlement Providing Discharge Changes Preliminarily OK’d

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal magistrate judge in California granted preliminary approval of a class settlement between veterans and the federal government that will remove references to sexual orientation from the discharge paperwork of servicemembers discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) and other similar policies.
January 21, 2025
Former Employee With Long COVID Alleges Her Firing By UPS Violated ADA, FMLA

PORTLAND, Maine — A former employee of a package delivery company filed suit against her former employer, alleging that her termination after developing “long COVID” was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state and federal family and medical leave statutes.
January 21, 2025
Federal Employees Union Sues President, Others Over Day 1 Executive Order

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A labor union that represents federal government workers in 37 agencies and departments filed a complaint on Jan. 20 in a federal court in the District of Columbia against President Donald Trump and five others alleging that an executive order (EO) signed shortly after the inauguration “attempts to strip civil service and due process protections from a large swath of federal employees.”
January 21, 2025
Medical Services Provider Accused Of Unlawfully ‘Annexing’ Sports Clinic

LOS ANGELES — Two entities involved in operating a provider of sports medicine and orthopedic surgery and two affiliated doctors filed a complaint in California state court accusing a nonprofit medical services provider and its executives of unlawfully seeking to “absorb . . . and unlawfully control” the sports medicine providers in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), trademark dilution laws and other state laws prohibiting employment-related retaliation.
January 21, 2025
Union, 2 Nonprofits Sue President, OMB Over Government Efficiency Department

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Shortly after the inauguration on Jan. 20, Donald J. Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) were sued in a federal court in the District of Columbia by a government employees union and two nonprofits that allege that the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
January 17, 2025
Michigan Jury Awards $133,000 To Employee Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination

DETROIT — A Michigan federal jury on Jan. 16 awarded $133,000 to a former employee of a resort after determining that his refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine was based on a sincerely held religious belief and that the resort failed to prove that accommodating the employee’s religious beliefs would have caused it to suffer an undue hardship.
January 16, 2025
2nd Circuit: No Gender Bias By Trader Joe’s For Pandemic Trip Firing

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel, in affirming a Connecticut federal judge’s order granting summary judgment, has determined that “no reasonable factfinder could conclude on” the record presented that Trader Joe’s termination of a female employee after she took a vacation out of the country during the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic following a written warning and negative performance review “was a pretext for sex discrimination or that sex discrimination was an otherwise motivating factor” in the decision.
January 15, 2025
High Court: Preponderance Of Evidence Standard Applies To FLSA Exemption Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled Jan. 15 that the preponderance of the evidence standard applies when an employer seeks to show that an employee is exempt from the minimum and overtime compensation requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), rejecting the argument by employees that the clear and convincing evidence standard must apply.
January 15, 2025
3rd Circuit Denies Rehearing After Dismissal Of Cannabis Use Suit Upheld

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing filed by a job applicant after the panel majority upheld a ruling finding that a New Jersey law prohibiting the firing of workers for cannabis use does not create a private cause of action.
January 15, 2025
Split 7th Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc After FLSA Jurisdiction Ruling

CHICAGO — The majority of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing and/or rehearing en banc filed by a worker in the United States on an H-2A visa who brought collective wage-and-hour claims after a divided panel ruled that “[a] court overseeing a collective action must secure personal jurisdiction over each plaintiff’s claim, whether representative or opt-in, individually.”
January 15, 2025
4th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Fired Worker’s Religious Bias Vaccine Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — A nurse who alleged religious discrimination and failure to provide reasonable accommodation after her employer denied her request for a religious exemption to its COVID-19 vaccination policy sufficiently alleged that her vaccination beliefs were rooted in her religious beliefs, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing a trial court’s dismissal of the complaint.
January 14, 2025
U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Age Bias Case Status After Voluntary Dismissal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Jan. 14 on whether voluntary dismissals under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41 are “final” and may be reopened under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b).
January 14, 2025
Florida Furniture Retailer Will Pay $1.48M To Settle EEOC Gender Bias Class Claims

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida-based furniture retail company will pay $1,482,748 and provide equitable relief to end a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the company had a policy of not hiring female applicants for driver and warehouse positions, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in Florida.
January 14, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Denies Professors’ 1st Amendment Representation Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed City University of New York (CUNY) professors who argued that their First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution rights are being violated as they are required to belong to a bargaining unit they accuse of engaging in anti-Semitic and anti-Israel conduct.
January 14, 2025
Walmart’s $5.2M Class Settlement Approved In Workers’ COVID-19 Screening Case

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California granted final approval of a $5.2 million class settlement to be paid by Walmart Inc. to end a case by workers who alleged that the retailer’s policy requiring nonexempt workers in that state to undergo a COVID-19 screening each shift without pay violated state and federal wage-and-hour laws, as well as California’s unfair competition law.
January 14, 2025
Arguments On Disability Bias Rights Of Former Employee Heard By U.S. High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Jan. 13 on whether a retired employee of a Florida city has the right to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for discrimination related to the distribution of fringe benefits that took effect after her employment ended.
January 13, 2025
Damages Capped In EEOC Bias Case; Permanent Injunction Partially Granted

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York, ruling on motions from both sides following a jury’s $1,675,000 verdict for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a case in which the agency accused a distribution company of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it failed to interview and hire a deaf applicant, applied the $300,000 statutory cap to the compensatory and punitive damages and partially granted the EEOC’s motion for a permanent injunction.
January 13, 2025
3rd Circuit Rules On Unfair Practices, Jurisdiction To Consider ALJ Removal

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to consider an employer’s challenge of removal protections for an administrative law judge (ALJ) but that “substantial evidence” supported the National Labor Relations Board’s finding that Starbucks Corp. committed unfair labor practices when it terminated two baristas who were involved in labor organizing.
January 13, 2025
10th Circuit: Worker Collective Failed To Show Age Bias With Policy Changes, RIF

DENVER — Workers laid off from an aerostructure manufacturer as part of a reduction in force (RIF) failed to show that the company’s policy changes and statements and the manner in which the RIF was carried out constituted age discrimination, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the employer on the employee’s collective action claims.